Empirical Public Economics

The aim of the course is to teach students how to interpret empirical research in public economics and to apply modern econometric methods commonly used in the field. Topics covered include: Effects of taxes and government transfers on labor supply and savings behavior of households; taxable income literature; welfare analysis of tax reforms; incentive and welfare effects of social insurance programs. Empirical approaches covered in the course include both structural and non-structural estimation methodologies, such as “natural experiments”, treatment effects estimation, ex-ante policy evaluation and microsimulation.